Why Are Zoos Bad Essay

Should Animals Be Kept In Zoos

The debate of whether or not confining of animals is right in zoos is a popular one that attracts both opponents and proponents. The increased interests in science and natural history saw the introduction of zoos in 1763, which facilitated up close animal studies and would provide a chance for entertaining and educating the public. Nevertheless, confining the animals into small spaces in unnatural habitats, the constant staring from people and loss of their freedom makes zoos the worst homes for animals.

Zoos provide unnatural habitats for the animals. Animals are naturally born and bred to live and die in wilderness habitats. However, despite the numerous efforts and good intentions by zoo management, it is impossible to provide the perfect environment for various animals. For instance, animals like the wilder beasts live in groups that migrate over long distances while elephants on average walk for over 50 km a day in packs. However, zoos can only provide minimal acres of land for the animals to walk about thereby making the environments unnatural and uncomfortable for the animals.

Zoos are a premise of captivity for animals that makes them crazy. Imprisoning of animals in small cages housed in poorly managed zoos that fail to meet the necessary standards, averts them from behaving naturally. As a result, suffer from zoochosis condition, which elicits stress, strange behavior of hurting themselves due to frustration and boredom; they become inactive and increasingly pace around. Moreover, the animals adopt aggressive behavior that results in them lashing out and injuring or killing people.

Zoos are not educational. Zoos operate on the premise that they provide an opportunity for the public to learn about animals. However, this is untrue, as keeping animals in confined and unnatural environments tend to alter their natural behavior, character, and responses. Thus, persons visiting the zoos observe the altered behavior marred by boredom, stress, and loneliness. Moreover, keeping animals in zoos teach people that it is okay to lock up and make animals miserable for their personal gain. Therefore, by gaining pleasure and entertainment from making animals suffer is a horrible lesson to learn.

Proponents of keeping animals in zoos argue that zoos offer the best forms of protection for animals. According to them, animals receive protection from poaching and predators that are out to kill them. Additionally, by engaging in breeding programs, zoos believe they protect various species from becoming extinct, therefore, making them positive institutions to exist. However, this is untrue as some zoos keep the animals in deplorable environments whey they lack food and adequate medical care. Moreover, based on research, endangered animals living in zoos are only about five species and only a few species undergo breeding.

Proponents also believe that zoos provide the opportunity for people to see a wide array of animals while benefiting children with lessons about the environment and animals. Nevertheless, this is not the case as zoos only house few species of animals as compared to those an individual can observe in the wild. Also, zoos expose animals to neglect and stress that alter their behavior hence impeding true learning for children.

In conclusion, animals just as humans enjoy rights to freedom, protection from abuse, stress, neglect and lack of privacy. There is no denying that zoo violates all these rights by introducing them to unnatural habitats and caging the animals. Hence, in promoting health and happiness of the animals, animals should not be kept in zoos.

Why Zoos Are Bad For Animals

Zoos are a place where animals from around the world are kept. Animals are taken from their natural habitat where there are naturally existing food sources and enemies, and placed inside of a cage that keeps out all of animals and consists of only a small percentage of the naturally occurring flora and fauna to which the animal is accustomed. With no natural predators or food sources to hunt, many animals will lose their natural instincts, which are necessary for survival. This prevents reintegration into the animal kingdom and leaves them sentenced for life in a zoo.

When animals are taken from their natural habitat, they are placed in secluded cages where their natural habitat is recreated, to the best of the zoo’s abilities. However, certain aspects such as ambient temperature in an animal’s natural habitat cannot be recreated perfectly. Animals live around the world for a reason. The main reason is that their natural habitat is associated with a particular climate and eco system, one which is reliant upon all of the natural plants and animals who also share that habitat. Nocturnal animals are those who sleep during the day and forage during the night. When nocturnal animals are taken from their natural habitat and placed inside of a zoo, with standard day time operating hours, it can be incredibly difficult for the animals to maintain their normal sleeping and activity plans due to a high rate of traffic often banging on their cage or calling to them during the day.

A cage in a zoo cannot recreate the whole of an animal’s native environment. Some flora and fauna are native to specific regions around the world and cannot be transplanted. This means that animals that typically get their nutrients from one plant may not have access to that plant inside of their zoo cage. The zoo will give them nutrients in other forms, but this is still altering the natural selection process of the animal kingdom.

In addition, without any natural predators or animals to hunt, animals kept in cages in a zoo lose their natural survival instincts and ability to hunt in the wild. This forever prevents them from being reintroduced into the animal kingdom. Left in a cage for the rest of their life, many zoo animals only have their mate and perhaps a few other herd members in their shared facility, which leaves them lonely for companionship that would naturally exist in the wild.